Thursday, August 14, 2008

Beach Expedition - The Final Hours


I woke up for yet another early morning as my instinctive alarm clock kicked in, casting slumber out the door. I was the first one to awake and decided to travel to both ends of the beach for a walk. I passed by familiar sights that I had seen while on the ATV before. However, I never realized how strenuous walking on sand is until that morning!

After my stroll, I sat on some of our borrowed chairs. Soon, I was approached by two beach resort staffers who started talking in very rapid Chinese to me. I managed to explain to them that I could not speak Chinese and roused one of the men from his slumber to help address their concerns. It turns out that they just wanted to take the borrowed beach furniture back. I was very surprised when they brought up garbage bags and started to clean up our mess from the night before. I pitched in where I could but they were more than content to clean up on their own. In no time at all, the beach furniture was packed away once more in storage and I took a seat in the sand.

In no time at all as the sun rose higher in the sky, our group woke, packed up our tents, picked up our garbage and helped the women get the bunkhouse ready for departure. In the bunkhouse, we swept up the nutshells on the floor and filled a water jug with tap water to give the floor a good scrub. I was surprised by the lengths our group went to clean up after itself! There were no regulations that stipulated that we have to clean our areas before departure. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised with how scrupulously clean our group left both the beach and the bunkhouse.

We bade goodbye to the beach as we packed up our cars and drove out into the horizon. Soon, I was napping in the back and casting occasional glances outside as the various scenes of China rolled past. It was incredible how much I had missed out on during the night time journey. We passed farms of verdant green, mechanized harbours, power plants, factories, apartment complexes and bubbling fish farms. As the countryside rolled by, I played out the memories of the weekend in my head. Recently, my head has begun swim from too many experiences to be had in such a short period of time! I’m still trying to piece together my experiences here, all of the places, people, discoveries, landmarks and culture. My trip to China has been a full sensory overload, but oh what fun it has been!



THE END



P.S. I dedicate this blog entry to Darleen and Mr. Luo! Without them, this Beach Trip Would not have been Possible!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

where is this beach? how far is it from Tianjin? do you have to pre-book to camp? do you have to pay?

a dragon said...

This beach is a 2-hours drive away from Tianjin, other than the specifics, I am not particularly sure. I was under the impression that a prebooking was necessary. Since I slept in a tent, I paid less than those who slept in the bunkhouse (100RMB which included all of my meals). If you would like more detailed information, do let me know and I can answer all of your questions and post it up!

Anonymous said...

Would be useful. Is beach camping a popular activity there?

Unknown said...

This images are stunning and thanking you for sharing

Johnny

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